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Line 3 Replacement Program (Canada)

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The $5.3-billion Canadian portion of the Line 3 Replacement Program involves the replacement of approximately 1,070 km of Line 3 pipeline between Hardisty, Alberta and Gretna, Manitoba with new pipeline.

The Canadian program also includes:

Installation of 55 new remotely operated valves

Installation of 18 new pump stations and associated infrastructure and equipment

Construction of three new oil storage tanks at the Hardisty Terminal in Alberta (total capacity of approximately 150,000 cubic metres), and;

Interconnections at facilities

Construction began in the summer of 2017 and resulted in on-time/on-budget completion of about one-third of the Canadian portion of the project, along about 418 km of the project right-of-way (ROW) in Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan. Related facilities construction at nine of 18 sites is also nearing completion.

Our plan is to start construction on the remaining Canadian pipeline replacement segments (Saskatchewan and Manitoba) in the fall of 2018. We continue to anticipate an in-service date for the project in the second half of 2019.

In the U.S., replacement of the segment of Line 3 that runs from the Minnesota border to Superior, Wisconsin, was also completed in 2017. Construction is expected to begin in Minnesota in early 2019, after the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) approved the Line 3 Replacement Project on June 28, 2018, granting a Certificate of Need and approving Enbridge’s preferred route with minor modifications and certain conditions.

Enbridge is committed to keeping communities informed in a timely manner as we progress through construction and our plans evolve.

Decommissioning

As part of the L3RP, the existing Line 3 pipeline will be decommissioned—and Enbridge will be remain responsible for the decommissioned line.

A decommissioned pipeline is taken out of service safely and permanently, but left in place while other existing or new pipelines in the same right-of-way continue to provide service to end users.

The process of decommissioning a pipeline typically involves: removing the oil from the pipeline; cleaning the pipeline; physically disconnecting the pipeline; segmenting the pipeline and continuing to monitor it.

Leaving the decommissioned pipeline in place is the safest and least disruptive option— it means minimal disturbance during project construction and significantly reduces the risk of future soil and slope instability.

Pipeline Safety

Over the past decade, from 2008 through 2017, Enbridge has transported more than 22 billion barrels of crude oil, with a safe delivery record of 99.99966 per cent. We know that’s not good enough, because our goal—simply, unequivocally—will always be zero incidents.

At Enbridge, we back up our safety priorities by investing heavily in the tools, technologies, and strategies to ensure our energy transportation and distribution systems operate safely, reliably, and in an environmentally responsible manner. In 2017, we spent $1.95 billion on programs that help us to maintain the fitness of our systems, including our crude oil and liquids network, across our operations in Canada and the U.S.

Answering Your Questions

Replacing Line 3 is in the public interest because it reduces both the frequency and the magnitude of ongoing maintenance activities that would otherwise occur in order to maintain the safe operation of Line 3. This means significant benefits to landowners, local communities, and the environment.

Replacing Line 3 is also in the public interest because it would better serve the current and future petroleum requirements of the general public, who are dependent on refineries to meet their refined petroleum product needs.

Listening to you, understanding your views, and working to address your concerns are important to Enbridge. Our team is dedicated to ensuring you have informative materials and are given the opportunity to share your feedback with us. We want to hear from you.

Line 3 Products

Line 3 is a “mixed-service” line, meaning it carries a variety of crude oils, including sweets, light and high sours, and light synthetics.

Shippers are permitted to ship crude oil blends or types on Enbridge’s liquids pipelines system that meet stringent quality specifications set by Enbridge, and filed with the National Energy Board. This includes heavy crudes such as diluted bitumen—which has been studied by numerous scientific bodies, including the highly respected and influential National Academy of Sciences, and found to be non-corrosive and safe for pipelines.

At Enbridge, we’ve been transporting crude oil produced from Canada’s oil sands region since 1968. There is nothing new about transporting this form of crude oil—and after nearly half a century, there is no evidence that internal corrosion is caused by transporting oil from the Canadian oil sands. In fact, Enbridge has never experienced an internal corrosion failure on its mainline pipeline system.

Contacts:

If you have any questions or concerns, or if you require further information regarding this program or Enbridge’s public involvement process, please call our program toll-free line:

Project Information:

Decommissioning

As part of the Line 3 Replacement Program, the existing Line 3 pipeline will be decommissioned—and Enbridge will be responsible for the decommissioned line forever.

In the Canadian pipeline industry, a line is said to be decommissioned when its operations permanently cease, but its end users along that right-of-way do not see a discontinuance of service. Using a traffic analogy, when one lane of a four-lane highway is closed down, traffic still uses the remaining lanes to travel from city to city.

In advance of the potential decommissioning of a line, engineering and environmental assessments are completed in consultation with landowners. And once the National Energy Board approves a decommission application, the process generally involves:

Removing the vast majority of crude oil from the pipeline with specially designed cleaning instruments;

Wiping and cleaning the pipeline, using a combination of cleaning instruments and cleaning solution;

Physically disconnecting the pipeline and sealing it off from active operational facilities, such as pump stations;

Segmenting the pipeline, where required, by creating permanent physical barriers inside the pipe (including gate valves and permanent segmentation plugs) to prevent the pipeline from acting as a water conduit.

The process does not end there. Enbridge is committed to monitoring decommissioned lines, just as we do with active lines, in various ways. They include:

Maintaining signage, with appropriate contact information, that identifies a decommissioned line in the right-of-way or corridor;

Maintaining the line’s profile for Call/Click Before You Dig programs.

Generally speaking, Enbridge leaves a decommissioned line in place to avoid major construction activities, and to reduce the risk of soil stability issues that could compromise the integrity of operating pipelines sharing the right-of-way.

This also means refraining from using the heavy equipment that would be needed to excavate and remove the buried pipeline – and that reduces the risk involved with maintaining the safe operation of those other pipelines.